Opinions on best integrated under 10k?

Uber,

Thanks for the update.  I've come close to pulling the trigger on that Ayre a few times, but a little underpowered for the speakers I had at the time.

I'm really interested in how the Esoteric sounds compared to the Lyngdorf for digital.  Looks like the D-07 is an older DAC.  I wonder how it compares to all the new technology digital has made recently.  I'm looking at DACs now too, and there are tons of older models for great prices.  Very tempting.

There are a number of things I have learned on this journey of integrateds.
I really do not need to spend 10k to get what I need, heck there are some super little integrateds out there for peanuts, take the Vincent sv236 for instance, can be had for 1k used!
Also if you truly do get a full all in one well then you are stuck with that house sound for every aspect, dac, phono, headphone etc. If you can live with that perfect, if not and you want to change one aspect well then you need buy that component , add it into the mix and then you defeated the whole object of that integrated...lol.

So not sure where I will end up yet, maybe I will just end buying a MA7900 or ML585 and be done with it all.
Maybe I will keep the 2170 and ph10 and schitt magni as it works well.
Maybe I will go back to all seperates again.

Interesting voyage!

" So not sure where I will end up yet, maybe I will just end buying a MA7900 or ML585 and be done with it all. "
Yeah, you're about where I am in thinking about this whole thing.  There is also the new(ish) Anthem STR integrated, which has DAC and also phono.  Right now, the top of my list is the ML 585, after hearing it at AXPONA.  The McIntosh integrateds include phono and are more versatile, but they just don't sound like the 585. The new ML 585.5 also includes a top flight phono stage, but will set you back a pretty penny. 

There are a number of things I have learned on this journey of integrateds....if you truly do get a full all in one well then you are stuck with that house sound for every aspect, dac, phono, headphone etc.

To your point @uberwaltz .... which is why a 'classic' integrated (pre and amp) makes more sense to me vs. a 'super' integrated (all in one).

David.
Think I am coming to that conclusion.
Which is why it will be interesting to see how the esoteric DAC and Ayre ax7e fare in my setup.
With that I can still run my headphone amp from the tape out and ph10 phono in on one set of balanced inputs.
We will see